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There is always an interesting array of sights and sounds when hip-hop — even the mainstream kind — comes to Cowtown.

But Drake didn’t need to be wearing a cowboy hat to draw a large, often delirious, crowd to the Scotiabank Saddledome on Saturday night.

Heavy on teens, and predominately females, the adoring throng was ready to dance, swing, sway and hell … maybe even twerk by the time the 27-year-old Toronto rap sensation walked on stage and launched into a snippet of Tuscan Leather, quickly followed by Headlines and crowd favourite, Crew Love.

Dressed head-to-toe in bad boy black, the Canuck MC didn’t have to do much to raise the crowd volume from the get-go. “Calgary-eeee,” he bellowed. Make some m-------in’ noise!”

At its worst, the Drizzy Drake live concert experience can be highly calculated, but at its best, well, it can be highly entertaining. The crooning rapper’s ascent to the top of the heap has been brisk. But make no mistake, this guy is a star.

Despite being from the mean streets and known ghetto of … Forest Hill in Toronto, street-cred and questions of authenticity haven’t presented a challenge for Aubrey Drake Graham in gaining a massive U.S. audience.

As a result, the former underground mix-tape sensation has become Canada’s most explosive export of the past five years.

His natural charm and all-Canadian charisma, not to mention a large batch of hit singles (and a Grammy, to boot), has been filling North American arenas since he set out on the current world Would You Like A Tour? … uh … tour.

Positioned on a massive stage, featuring a spectacular plexi-glass and metal circular catwalk that dropped from the Saddledome heavens, flanked by a number of backing musicians, and a backdrop IMAX-sized video screen that would make KISS envious, Drizzy Drake got his club on, poured on the moves (although he ain’t much of a dancer) and all the hits during a 100-minute set which was rife with numbers from his latest release, Nothing Was The Same.

Furthest Thing, Wu-Tang Forever, Own It and Connect came off as old favourites and made it easy to forget that the man — the myth, the Toronto Raptors global ambassador, the legend — has only been at this seriously for about four years.

Who knew that 138 episodes of Degrassi: the Next Generation could lead to this?

Being one of the world’s biggest pop stars comes with a price … we just haven’t figured out the down side yet.

Opening the proceedings were a pair of bursts from Miguel and Future, as well as a short set from PARTYNEXTDOOR.

Miguel’s brand of neo-soul and R&B was certainly not lost on this crowd, and the 28-year-old San Pedro native got his groove on, and got the crowd on its feet through the title cut of last year’s Kaleidoscope Dreams as well as The Thrill, Sure Thing, All I Want Is You and the pseudo-ghetto poetry of P---y Is Mine. If nothing else, it was refreshing to see actual musical instruments on stage for the first time in the first three acts.

Bad-ass Atlanta MC, Future also got his club on through a brisk set of numbers from 2012’s Pluto, while PARTYNEXTDOOR — or Jahron Anthony Brathwaite, if you will, a 20-year-old MC from Mississauga — gave us ten minutes of female anatomy references, talk of bitches and F-bombs in a, sort of, R&B styling.

Having released his self-titled 2013 mix-tape this past summer, the company he keeps is the only thing this kid has going for him.

Drake charms Saddledome crowd on Calgary leg of "Would You Like A Tour?" tour

There is always an interesting array of sights and sounds when hip-hop — even the mainstream kind — comes to Cowtown.

But Drake didn’t need to be wearing a cowboy hat to draw a large, often delirious, crowd to the Scotiabank Saddledome on Saturday night.

Heavy on teens, and predominately females, the adoring throng was ready to dance, swing, sway and hell … maybe even twerk by the time the 27-year-old Toronto rap sensation walked on stage and launched into a snippet of Tuscan Leather, quickly followed by Headlines and crowd favourite, Crew Love.

Dressed head-to-toe in bad boy black, the Canuck MC didn’t have to do much to raise the crowd volume from the get-go. “Calgary-eeee,” he bellowed. Make some m-------in’ noise!"